instead we saw joshing around the table about john boehner's birthday between the president and john boehner. is it any different, or is this just about, i don't know, smoke and mirrors? >> well, i think the atmosphere is certainly different as you mentioned. in the past, these guys would go back to capitol hill and put out competing statements about what went on during the meetings. you saw what happened last year during the debt ceiling negotiations. this time it was one big happy family. there certainly seems to be some sort of recognition on the part of how fed up american people with sort of the seeing this game of chicken being played at such a high stakes time. i think there is certainly, after this election, there is kind of a let's get down to business. let's see if we can get this thing done. whether that can translate -- david just said, the biggest sticking point, taxes on the wealthy is still on the table. you can sing happy birthday to john boehner as much as you want. gwen: he would still say no. >> absolutely. i think it's really premature to try to predict what is go